DECARBOXYLATION RATE OF URONIC GROUPS CONTAINED IN SOIL ORGANIC MATTER, PLANT GUMS OF KNOWN CONSTITUTION, PLANT MATERIALS, AND MICROBIAL PRODUCTS
- 1 September 1947
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wolters Kluwer Health in Soil Science
- Vol. 64 (3), 183-198
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-194709000-00003
Abstract
The rate of evolution of CO2 from soil organic matter and various uronic-containing substances, when boiled with 12% HC1, was followed in order to obtain evidence as to the nature and source of the CO2-yielding constituents of soil organic matter. The CO2 evolution from both surface soil and subsoil was greatest during the first 15 min., then decreased abruptly and continued at a slowly decreasing rate during the 7-hr. digestion period. 9%-23% of the organic C in the surface soils appeared to be uronic; the corresponding value for the subsoil was 19 to 30%. The rate of CO2 evolution from lemon pectin and from mesquite gum was a little less than from soil organic matter but otherwise similar. The uronic units of both natural and pectin-extracted plant materials were decarboxylated at about the same rate as those of plant gums. A much smaller percentage of the total C of plant materials was present as uronic C than in the case of soil organic matter. Biological decomposition of plant materials resulted in a rapid loss of uronic C during the first 5 days but after 6 months many plant residues contained more uronic units than after 10-30 days, even though the total wt. of the sample was much lower. Uronic C was undoubtedly synthesized by microorganisms. Decarboxylation rate studies with the gums produced by 2 typical soil organisms, Rhizobium trifolium and Sporocytophaga myxococcoides, gave rate curves similar to those for soil organic matter.Keywords
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